Which is correct:
- Mary Queen of Scots birthplace
- Mary Queen of Scots' birthplace?
Answer
If you wish to make a possessive of a longer title — grammatically a noun phrase consisting of a noun and an appositive — you may attach an ’s to the end of the phrase. Since Scots is plural, however, you only add an apostrophe:
Their demands were equally uncompromising, including the restoration of traditional Catholic worship, the trial of Cecil, the release of the Duke of Norfolk and the recognition of Mary, Queen of Scots’ title to the throne. — J. Derek Holmes, Bernard W. Bickers, A Short History of the Catholic Church, 1984, 158.
The comma after Mary really shouldn’t be there.
A surprising number of publications grammatically reduce Mary’s sovereignty to a single Scottish subject:
These allies lost and Mary Queen of Scot's future was apparently to be the daughter-in-law of Henry VIII. — Gerard Lacey, The Legacy of the DeLacy, Lacey, Lacy Family 1066–1994, 1994, 88.
Needless to say, this is the wrong way to form a possessive of Queen of Scots.
Whether Mary Queen of Scots’ birthplace or (the) birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots is a better stylistic choice depends on how you’re using it in a sentence. If it’s clear you’re only talking about the ill-fated queen, you’d probably be better off with Mary’s birthplace or some such.
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